He Follows Her Into Starlight
by StarlitWave10
Summary: Kili ponders his relationship with Tauriel


He follows her into starlight because without her, he is lost in darkness. The pain in his leg is slowly fading, and for a moment, Kili forgets he exists. Because he cannot possibly exist on the same plane with a being as beautiful as she. He lifts his large, awkward fingers, covered with calluses from too many fighting days, covered with hair from too many dwarf genes. His mother had warned him, when she gave him the stone. She'd warned him about every creature they could possibly meet, finally finishing with a cold stare when she'd spoken about the elves. "Beware the she-elf," she'd whispered. "They'll ensnare you and trap you with their pretty eyes and pretty words." And Kili just laughed because there's no way he could ever be ensnared by an elf. He used to believe that those tales of pretty words and graceful legs were just that, tales and stories meant to instill some kind of dreams into children. And, when he first say her, he didn't believe. She flew through the trees like a hawk, bow and arrow blending perfectly with her arms. As he thought that this was the end, that the spider would drag him back to its den, from the hell it'd crawled out of, she pulled him out and into a world now filled with her heavenly beauty. He holds her hand, and wonders if this is the heaven he'd heard stories about. They said that someone beautiful would carry you into the light, and all pain would vanish. The pain in his leg is completely gone now, and Kili is a boy once again, a boy with a dream to walk across faraway lands, to travel with his uncle Thorin. Except now, he thinks that he'd rather go on an adventure with her. He decides right then and there that he loves seeing her smile, the small twitch of her lips that suggests a cascade of light just waiting to erupt. Thorin's was always so gloomy, full of the hate and death he bore every day on his shoulders. Tauriel's smile was light, gentle (like her name, her name that flew off his tongue and always seemed to land so far away, so lost amidst the field of stars). "Tauriel." Legolas's voice is filled with urgency. Kili glances over to see, with some gruesome glee, that the elf is bleeding slightly from his nose. Tauriel lets go of his hand and he immediately feels his absence, a fire whose warmth won't touch him. For a moment, he hopes Legolas shall push her away and she'll go back to him. But Tauriel is not weak. She is strong, and needs comfort solely from herself, not from clunky dwarves with hands larger than their beards. Kili glances down at his own hands, the one that have been gracing his stone more and more often as the nights have gotten longer and longer. "Return to me," his mother had whispered. "If you shall not listen to my prayers, then listen to my begging. Please, return." And he had clutched her hand and wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. His mother was not known for crying, but in that moment, her tears could have filled a river. "Look out for one another," she'd said to Fili. "Both of you." They had nodded like the brothers they were and set off with their uncle, a dwarf who was more father to them than mere relative. Fili had stared straight ahead, but Kili'd glanced back for a moment, and watched how his mother raised a hand in farewell. He'd wondered, then, if he was ever going to see her raise her hand in welcome. His thoughts drift to that moment as he lies on the bed, dark eyes fixed on the elf that seemed to have been crafted out of the starlight she craves so dearly. She is aglow, her bright aura dazzling him in his half-awakened state, and Kili can't help himself. He stares. Thought his half-lidded eyes he gazes upon her, drinks in the sight of her like a creature dying of thirst. When he whispers her name it rolls off his tongue as sweet as honey. She turns away from the elf who loves her and turns to back to Kili, the dwarf who has gotten in over his head. "Are you alright? Can I trust you not to go running off into the stars without me?" She asks with a small smile, a tiny hint of the night they shared together with words and dreams. Kili manages a small one of his own, minuscule and partly gone as soon as it surfaces. "Yes…thank you." His lips are chapped and barely open, but his eyes are open books waiting impatiently on the shelf. Tauriel gazes back at him, the dwarf whose life she'd saved twice, but over whom she held no debt. "You're welcome, dw-...Kili." She smiles again, a small one this time, slightly embarrassed because perhaps she thinks she got it wrong- So Kili smiles back, the most encouraging one he can muster under the circumstances. "Tauriel," Legolas says again, insistence growing on his tongue. Kili understands that the orcs are dangerous (he better than most people), but dwarves are nothing if not selfish. So he swallows, and tells her he loves her with his eyes. With words, he says, "Good luck. I'll be right here when you get back." She laughs, and he watches as she leaves the candle-lit room, and disappears into starlight. 


End file.
